1. Field of the Invention
The invention herein relates to a tool to assist in the removal of paint from a paint roller and more particularly to a tool that enables the weenie roller to be placed in a spinner or electric drill to spin and remove the paint therefrom.
2. Overview of Prior Art
Every home owner who has awakened with the ambition to change the color of a room or even the entire house has embraced the efficiency of the paint roller. Paint rollers are made of absorbent material that drinks up paint so that a single "refueling" of paint enables a large area to be covered. This increases the efficiency of the device. The problem with this absorbency is that the paint left in the roller is many times difficult to remove from the roller when that job is finished. For the occasional painter the rollers are usually discarded, which is wasteful but for the professional painter this is a costly consequence that is not acceptable. As such, many devices are used to spin the rollers, using centrifugal force to throw the paint off of the roller, thereby enabling them to be used again. A device called a "spinner" is commonly used to hold brushes and large rollers to spin then clean and dry.
Mini rollers or "weenie rollers" which are, generally speaking, smaller versions of more traditional rollers and are used for painting hard to reach places and sharp comers. Weenie rollers have a one to one and one half inch diameter. This decrease in radius from the central axis of rotation in a spinner greatly decreases the centrifugal force applied to any particle of paint thereon. As such, speed of rotation is of critical importance. Many electric drills are not capable of reaching speeds that are adequate and the spinner is the only appropriate tool. Unfortunately the spinner includes a set of jaws that are designed to receive the handle of a brush but not a weenie roller.
Few attempts have been made to create an adapter that would enable a weenie roller to be received by a spinner and all fall short in terms of functionality. One such attempt was made be Powell in U.S. Pat. No. 5,473,823. Here Powell discloses a handle with a tapered rod extending therefrom. The taper is on the end of the rod, apparently to facilitate insertion into the interior cavity of the roller. The problem with this is that different manufacturers of rollers have products that are slightly different in length, taper of the internal cavity and design, making it difficult to securely support a shaft adequately for spinning the roller.
Powell disclosed a mini-roller that is cylindrical with a cylindrical passage there-through. This is not as common as a cylinder with one side open and the passage in the form of a taper, or with a washer positioned slightly past the center of the roller to support the end of the shaft. Powell could not adequately support either of these common roller designs because the taper on the shaft would preclude support on the end of the roller. Furthermore, the absence of a taper on the medial end of the shaft precludes the roller from being secured to the tool. Both of which are vitally important to the function of the device.
Another cleaner adapter was disclosed by McCauley et al in U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,948 in which an elongated rectangular section is shown with a rod portion extending from at least one end. In one embodiment the device has a tapered portion which is intended to receive the inside of a large paint roller. A notch is removed from one blade of this version of the device. The notch is used to scrape the roller to assist in the removal of paint and water. Sharp edges such as would be present here will damage the nap of the roller, greatly reducing its life. The taper is intended to allow variability in the size of the roller. Unfortunately, since the device is on a taper with no visible means of support on the end of the adapter, the roller would be supported by exactly four points on one extreme end of the roller. This makes the roller extremely unstable and when rotated at high speed, the free end of the roller would have a tendency to wobble and could fall off the device. If the size of the roller was such that it was supported in the same location as the notch, then the roller would be supported by only three points, exaggerating the aforementioned problem. Also, rotating fins present a danger of injury as compared to a smooth design.
Additionally the device includes a first side (54) which is the small side of the device to be grasped by the spinner or drill chuck. This would necessitate the device be inordinately long or that only paint rollers of minimal length could be used to fit the roller onto the fins of the device while allowing sufficient room for the spinner to adequately grab the device by the same direction of assembly. A rod portion (58) extends from the other end, the combination being potentially very unstable. Also because of the orientation of the device in the spinner the process of changing the rollers requires removal of the device from the spinner each time. Further adding to the inefficiency of use of the device.
The device of McCauley et al includes a rod portion (58) which is intended to support a small roller. The rod is assumed to be without a taper until the element (55), which is shown to be an arcuate taper on the medial end of the rod. This is intended to support the internal diameter of the small roller to temporarily secure it so that it can be spun in the spinner. Again this is only supporting the roller in a minimal way, here in only two places. The patent claims a tapered element . . . intermediate said second side and said rod element. Therefore it must be continuous with the elongated wing that makes up the second side of the elongated portion. The applicant has tried such a device and has found them to be inadequate in releasably securing the small roller to a device including a rod to support the roller. The lack of friction by supporting it in only two places causes the roller to prematurely disengage from the device. If the roller falls off the device the roller is now not only wet and "painty" it is also potentially dirty.
Another device that is intended to be adapted into an electric drill is disclosed by Hutt in U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,938. Here a device is disclosed which has the capability of holding a brush or a large roller and the device can be secured into the chuck of an electric drill. The device is a complex system of articulating parts that include a jaw head that retracts to accept a large roller and articulates to expand within the inside of the roller to secure same. The device is relatively expensive to manufacture and therefore limited in its usefulness. The device is not deemed appropriate to be received by a spinner. The mini-rollers require greater speed of rotation that are evident with the spinner but not with most electric drills. As such, this device is not intended nor applicable to use with the small rollers.
A similar product is disclosed by Seiler in U.S. Pat. No. 3,733,645 insofar as the adaptation to large paint rollers being spun by an electric drill. Here the device is greatly simplified as compared to that of Hutt and is comprised of a longitudinal rod with one end fixed to a plurality of fins. The combination is two fold in that upon rotary actuation it can be used to mix paint or inserted into a large roller and used to spin the paint and moisture from the roller. The cylindrical rod that is used in the drill chuck is not adapted to be used in a spinner and the lack of adaptableness to the inside diameter of the roller makes it inappropriate to be used in that manner.
A series of paint roller cleaners are disclosed in the art which include some sort of water jet assembly to assist in the cleansing of the paint roller. These include U.S. Pat. No. 3,818,529 to Leggett and U.S. Pat. No. 4,108,189 to Claiborne et al. In both disclosures a supportive frame is used which allows the roller to rotate as one or more water jet(s) are used to assist in the removal of paint therefrom.
Closed containers are used in disclosures by Lindsay, Dolcater, Fritz and Gorecki in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,448,209; 4,733,679; 4,377,175 and 5,505,220 respectively. Here canisters are used to contain the resulting fluid as water or another solvent can be projected onto the roller. The placement of the jets in most cases, such as is apparent with Dolcater, Fritz and Gorechi, to cause the roller to rotate as they are washed where Lindsay includes a mechanism to drive the rollers to rotate as they are washed. Fritz and Lindsay disclose systems that can be closed where Dolcater and Gorecki disclose devices with a open end to facilitate replacement of the rollers to be cleansed. All of these disclosures are complex and therefore relatively expensive to manufacture relative to a simple and tool that can be used with a spinner. Also these are all disclosed to be used with the rotary mount of a paint roller support, including or similar to that of a large paint roller. As such, it is not anticipated that these would be used for a mini-roller or weenie roller.